Thursday, 5 June 2014

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- The PLO is to appeal to the UN Security Council over Israel's settlement construction, after it invited tenders for another 1,500 settler homes, a senior official said Thursday.

"The executive committee of the PLO views this latest escalation with the utmost of seriousness," Hanan Ashrawi said in an English-language statement.

The executive committee "will counter it by addressing both the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly as the proper way of curbing this grave violation and ensuring accountability," she added.

Overnight, Israel's housing ministry unveiled plans for the new homes, 400 of them in annexed East Jerusalem, in what it said was a "fitting Zionist response" to the formation of a Palestinian unity government which includes Hamas.

The PLO threatened an "unprecedented" response to the move, with one senior official telling AFP the leadership was considering an appeal to the international justice system. more